The War on Bugs: Antibiotic Use and Co-Existence with the Microbial World

E120,

Joseph Stiglitz: Alex Jones Interview FULL 2008 – Globalization and its Discontents

E120, e145,

How Can the Philippines Recover From Typhoon Haiyan While Forced to Pay Off Ex-Dictator’s Old Debt?

E120, e145,

Spacewalk POV: Cosmonauts at work 400 km above Earth at ISS

E120,

‘Snowden showed us world sleepwalks into Orwellian horror’ – ex-intelligence officer

E120, media, e145

John Colapinto: Why Used Cooking Oil Is Big Business

http://m.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/18/131118fa_fact_colapinto

E120, e145,

2013 In Review: Obama Talks Climate Change–But Pushes Fracking

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/2013-obama-talks-climate-change-pushes-fracking

Global warming stopped being political poison, but the fracking and coal export boom continued.

—By Suzanne Goldenberg

| Thu Dec. 26, 2013 3:00 AM GMT

Rena Schild/Shutterstock

This story originally appeared in the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the ClimateDesk collaboration.

This was the year when climate change came out of the closet.

Barack Obama elevated climate change to one of his top presidential priorities. White House and other officials brought up the topic in public after spending the previous four years scuttling away from any mention of climate change. Climate change became a factor in state elections and there were polls suggesting even Republicans in the most conservative states wanted to take measures to avoid a future of dangerous climate change.

But it was also a year when Obama claimed as a personal achievement the expansion of oil and gas production through hydraulic fracturing, and when the coal industry sent coal overseas to rescue the mines closing down at home.

Barack Obama used the January 21 inaugural address for his second term in the White House to renew his commitment to respond to the climate crisis “knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations”.

He linked climate change to Hurricane Sandy and the other extreme weather events of 2012 and took a swipe at climate deniers.

He was even more forceful in his first State of the Union address on February 12, seizing the moment to put Republicans on notice: “If Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.”

He said he would direct government, including the Environmental Protection Agency, to use its authority to cut greenhouse gas emissions, promote renewable energy, and protect communities from future climate change.

Obama delivered on that promise on June 25 in another landmark speech in which he directed the Environmental Protection Agency to take measures to cut emissions from new and existing power plants.

….(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120